Sometimes weather dictates an indoor workout, even when you’re longing for the outdoors. A video screen mounted to the handlebars with scenery doesn’t replace the outdoor feel. Expresso Upright Bike makes claims to “fuse exertainment with Web-based personalization features in a commercial-quality system! Eye-catching and fully-integrated design.” The bike has over 30 Basic-to-Extreme rated interactive tours such as rides along the California coast and the Peruvian mountains.
If you look at this bike, about the only thing that’s advanced beyond other stationary bikes and spin bikes is that the handlebars move to simulate turns and steering around a course or those curvy coastline roads. It also changes the resistance with the terrain on the road or course you’re riding. The video screen provides the scenery, but we’re not certain if it speeds up or slows down to match your speed as you ride. The screen is too small to offer any kind of immersive experience the company claims to provide.
The look of the Expresso Bike is not much more advanced than stationary bikes that have been in the gym for several years. The handlebars do have strips for a heart rate monitor, but the handlebars are more like that of a stationary bike rather than a bike, thus taking away from the experience simulating biking on the road. It does have a decent amount of adjustability, and Expresso makes a youth-size for the kiddies to get their workout. The computer does offer decent settings to adjust the workout as you set up a program or on the go. But the 19″ screen just seems to serve the function of playing video for you to bike along. It really doesn’t make for a proper workout simulation. It’s surprising that the Richmond Olympic Oval, which just opened in British Columbia after hosting the Olympic games last winter, touts the Expresso Bike as a machine that “mimics a video game.”